Hospital corpse mixed up: Tamil Nadu local's body sent to Bihar by mistake, family identifies error

CHENNAI: A mix-up of corpses at Tiruvallur govt hospital near Chennai resulted in the body of a 69-year-old local being dispatched to Bihar in an ambulance before officials had the vehicle turn back, when it was more than 800km on its way towards the northern state. The deceased was Rajendran, 69, a labourer who had died Tuesday at the hospital, a day after attempting suicide. The man with whom his body was mixed up was Manoj Manchi, 55, a construction labourer who fell ill and died at the hospital on June 2.After postmortem, hospital handed over a body wrapped in cloth to Rajendran's relatives on Wednesday. When the family members wished to see his face, they were shocked to see it was not Rajendran's body and protested. Hospital staff reviewed CCTV footage in front of the relatives to identify who sent out the wrong body. However, the staff claimed CCTV recordings were incomplete, and they did not have the password to access the footage, which further angered the family and led to arguments with hospital employees and police. Hospital administration launched a search and confirmed the mix-up. A probe revealed that the body given to Rajendran's family was actually that of Manchi. The Bihar man had arrived in Chennai on May 30 and reached a road construction site on June 2. He fell ill and collapsed on the same day and was rushed to the Tiruvallur hospital. A relative from Bihar arrived, claimed a body - apparently without checks - and left in the ambulance.By the time hospital staff contacted the ambulance driver, he was past Hyderabad. He was instructed to return with Rajendran's body. The ambulance reached the hospital Thursday evening.